SpokEasy

May 2020

Monster Killer?

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Dehydration sounds like a monster killer: De-HYDE-ration. Yeah, yeah, another one of my horrible jokes. Out on my ride today, though, I got this idea because I was wondering whether I might be getting dehydrated. Dehydration is far from a monster killer; it\’s a monster in itself. It was one of those days. For whatever reason, I felt tired. My energy level was low. My endurance seemed poor. On the way home, the 10 mph wind seemed awfully strong. Only will-power seemed to keep me going, and getting back home felt like it took forever. Dehydration is a possible cause of fatigue, and is definitely no joke. I began to take sips of water and electrolyte drink more frequently. It didn\’t seem to help. I ate a few more bites of food. That didn\’t help, either. Whatever was going on, I did a much shorter ride than I had planned. I was going to push for 40 miles, and did just over 29. When I was back home, and did my post-ride weigh-in, I weighed 2.3 pounds more than my pre-ride weight. That almost certainly means that dehydration was not my problem today. Maybe I should have eaten more before and during my ride. Or possibly even skipped it? After all, I was tired when I got up this morning. We all need a day off now and then. So why go riding when I\’m tired? I went out because this is the last day of Bike Month, and I didn\’t want to miss it. I need to learn how to keep going when things don\’t seem to be going well. It\’s called slaying your demons!

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Rulebreaking

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Rulebreaking, sometimes called \”thinking outside the box\”, is something that most of us do here and there. This morning you would have thought that I had violated a major rule of grocery shopping: Don\’t shop for food while you\’re hungry. I didn\’t exactly go to the store hungry. I ate a banana before leaving home, intending to have a more substantial breakfast when I got back. Then, while standing in the line to check out, my stomach began to growl. There was some kind of problem with the customer in front of me; the card she was using to pay wasn\’t working right, or something. So there I was, waiting and hungry. The longer you have to wait in line, the more you notice the items in the racks next to you. I spied Clif Bars, which I use regularly as ride food. I grabbed a couple of them; then saw the Cooper Street granola cookie bakes. I got two of those as well — and devoured one before climbing aboard my bicycle to ride my loaded panniers back home. I think I\’ve discovered a new ride food. After I got the groceries put away, it was finally time for real breakfast. Here is another way in which I indulge in rulebreaking. I don\’t give a hoot what we\’re \”supposed\” to eat for breakfast. If I want brown rice and lentil soup at breakfast time, that\’s what I\’ll eat. Breakfast is supposed to be a great time to eat legumes, anyway: they provide slow-digesting fuel to keep you going. On the bike isn\’t the only time we need fuel. So be a rulebreaker! Think of yourself as a trend-setter, and don\’t be afraid to think outside the box.

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Bad Hair Day

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Bad Hair Day A bad hair day isn’t most people’s idea of fun. Sometimes no amount of combing and brushing seems to do any good. For some people, how their hair looks is very important, making a bad hair day very frustrating. Cyclists, you might think, battle bad hair days constantly in the form of helmet hair. In cold weather a helmet liner goes a long way towards preventing helmet hair. But what can you do if it’s warm; and you want your hair to stay neat? Here’s an idea I never would have dreamed of. It’s inexpensive and easy. But with so many people making cloth bandana masks because of COVID-19, bandanas might not be so easy to find. Another solution, at least for men, would be a very short haircut. In fact, I feel sure that’s why so many pro cyclists have “zip” type cuts during the racing season. During a Grand Tour event they wouldn’t have much time to spare on hair care, anyway. My own solution for helmet hair: when I take off my helmet after a long ride on a hot, humid day; and my hair is crinkly; I just give it a good brushing. That pretty well gets rid of helmet hair for me. It might not work for everyone, I admit. My hair is thin and fine; and I keep it short. For thick hair it might be a different story. Even if brushing doesn’t completely get rid of  my post-ride hairdo, I don’t sweat it. Especially not in these work-from-home days (weeks? months?). I’m at home anyway; how my hair looks now hardly matters.

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Incongruity

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Incongruity is what I call it when the music that starts running through my head as I ride does not match how I\’m riding. I had thought of doing force work this morning. After my warm-up mile, when I opened up the throttle, I found that I was riding 15 mph quite easily! For much of my ride, I worked to stick with that; it\’s only too rarely that I get to enjoy it. So there I was, pedaling along at 14-15 mph, with a cadence around 80. And what starts playing itself inside my brain? The very lyrical second movement of Beethoven\’s Sixth Symphony! You might well ask why. I wonder, myself. Maybe it was the quiet; and the growing daylight; the lack of wind for once; the patches of mist on the ground. You can add the sighting of a rabbit, too, and hearing the birdsong. I\’m glad I got to enjoy the halcyon weather this morning; there\’s a chance of T-storms later in the day. For a fact it\’s so humid that my helmet had a film of moisture on it when I got back home. There\’s incongruity in my cycling life in other ways, too. I\’ve still got heavy Winter gloves lying around. I\’ll wear cycling socks that have my bike shop\’s logo on them, and cover up said logo with reflective ankle bands. I have MTB-style pedals on my road bike! Purists would probably be horrified. OK, so they\’re shocked; that\’s their problem. My problem now is, I have to end this blog and get ready to work.  

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Warning Signs

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Warning signs are all around us, every day. \”Construction Zone\”, for example. Or, \”Slippery When Wet\”. There are warning signs our bodies send us, and which we, as cyclists, must learn to heed. In his Cyclist\’s Training Bible, Joe Friel discusses this. According to his writing, your body \”whispers\” to you what it can tolerate when you first wake up in the morning. Among the signs to examine are your stress level and how well you\’ve slept. From these indicators, you can learn how to determine how hard you can train that day. For me, tingling upper incisors are a warning sign that my allergies are acting up. There\’s not too much I can do about it, except to take an OTC to relieve some of the symptoms. We all know about sirens: for police, ambulance, fire engine, tornado. The first three mean, GET OUT OF THE WAY!! The fourth? I guess all you can do is to find the best shelter you can, as fast as possible. Tornadoes, so I\’ve read, typically do not dawdle. What warning signs must we watch for while out for a long bicycle ride? What can Nature tell us? I\’m sure reading up on the subject is a big help; but a lot of it comes from experience. What kinds of clouds warn of rain? Is a certain wind direction more likely to bring rain than another? How do you deal with wildlife encounters, especially large animals? What other signs does Nature give of possible trouble? I know this one, anyway: \”Red sky at morning, sailor take warning\”. Maybe \”biker take warning\”, too.    

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Reflex

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Hey, that\’s \”reflex\”; not \”reflection\”. The forecast for tomorrow says, scattered T-storms at 5 am. It look as though it may be a time for a REpeat of FLEXtime. Ergo, reflex. This morning I didn\’t get to ride. Last night I got to bed rather too late. Then this morning, I shut off the alarm clock and fell asleep again. No surprise there, really. I would have gone for at least a short ride, but I needed to head out at about 8 am. I had an appointment with the ophthalmology clinic downtown, and had to take public transit. Today\’s forecast was also a rainy one, and I wanted to get downtown before the skies opened up if I could. With the reduced motor traffic, riding my hybrid down there may well have been possible. There was a major catch, however. An eye exam means dilating drops, so they can examine my optic nerve. The effects of those drops never fully wears off until the following day. Even with my sunglasses and an overcast sky, the light bothers my eyes. I was also concerned about the possibility of heavy rain; justifiably so, as it turned out. The streetcar ran into a downpour that stretched  for several miles. If I had been on a bicycle, that might have been major trouble. When I at last got home, I tried to do some work. The ophthalmologist hasn\’t said not to look at computer screens, but it sure is uncomfortable. If anything, my personal laptop is brighter than my work computer, so I\’d better finish this blog and shut the thing off for tonight. And I hope tomorrow doesn\’t have to be reflex.

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Memorial Day Thoughts

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Memorial Day Thoughts Memorial Day Our Memorial Day our thoughts are for men and women currently in service; those who have served in the past; and most of all, for those who gave their lives in service. I confess that my Memorial Day thoughts today are, one: I’m glad I didn’t take yesterday off, and wait to ride until today. At 7:25 am, it began to rain. It did stop after about 25 minutes, but it looks like more is coming. Likely there will be T-storms, too. Another thought: I don’t want it to storm all day. A lot of people want to get outdoors for picnics and barbecues, even if they must still practice social distancing. I do hope, however, for all-day overcast to keep it cooler. Just don’t forget the sunblock, for both you and the kids. An overcast sky does not keep off the UV rays! Thought number three: more cooking! I have some yellow crookneck squash that I’ll chop and cook in canned tomatoes. With onion and garlic, of course. I hope I can make room for it in the freezer. Whatever your thoughts may be, Happy Memorial Day!

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Rara Avis

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A rara avis is the roseate spoonbill. On my rides, I frequently see egrets; white ibises; and sometimes glossy ibises. This morning I spotted a pair of birds that looked like ibises;  but the upper chest and back were white, and the rest of the body was a darkish shade of pink. These birds were too small to be flamingos. I thought perhaps they might be scarlet ibises; but as far as I know, their range in the USA is restricted to southern Florida. When I got back home, I pulled out my old bird guide. It doesn’t have a picture of a scarlet ibis, but it does show the roseate spoonbill! This is the first time I’ve ever seen a spoonbill outside of a zoo. There’s a zoo close by here, so maybe those two were fugitives. Enough about ornithology. Back to the business of riding. Today I put in 37.5 miles. The forecast last night showed wind from the ESE at 5-9 mph. By the time I started back home, the wind was up to 12 mph. What a drag! I kept pressing my Garmin’s lap button when I felt that I was slowing down. Outward-bound, except for the warm-up mile, I averaged over 15 mph. At the time, there didn’t seem to be any wind at all! Tailwinds can fool you that way. Coming back home, my average speed never dropped below 10 mph, which really surprised me. Time was when a 12 mph headwind would have pushed my forward motion down to 8-9 mph. Aside from the wind, it was great for riding. There were enough clouds that the sun was sometimes obscured, which helped keep me cooler. I saw those spoonbills! My father would have loved to see them. He was quite the bird-watcher. A rara avis sure would have tickled him.  

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QUEST-ion?

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I have a quest-ion: Which one of these flavors is best? With the Quest Variety Pack you can try a dozen different ones! I\’ve tried several in recent weeks, after a friend suggested them. The local Walgreen\’s carries four or five flavors. Unfortunately that\’s too few to answer my quest-ion! Unsurprisingly I went for Double Chocolate Chunk first. I\’ve also tried Birthday Cake, Cookies & Cream, and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. I wish I could try Maple Waffle. I love maple syrup! When I visit the salvage store, I always hope I\’ll find products like this in the make-your-own-grab-bag bins. Sometimes I do find various types of protein bars there; but not today. Quest Bars make pretty good ride food. I like to cut up one Quest Bar and one Kind Bar, and put the pieces in my road bike\’s top tube pouch. Then I can alternate bites; first one kind and then the other. Speaking of riding, I hope the weather will be OK tomorrow. It looks like the greatest chance of rain and t-storms will be in the afternoon, and I ride early in the day. We are now getting Summer weather; this morning it was already 78° at 7 am! Time to haul out the sun sleeves!

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Not So Tightwaddish

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I guess I\’m not so tightwaddish as I would like to be. I still love (and buy) my little luxuries. This morning I made another trip to the salvage store, taking along my set of panniers and the trunk. As always, I was eager to see what the store would have. The make-your-own-grab-bag bins were piled high; something I don\’t remember seeing before. I didn\’t see any candy bars there, but I found a lot of things that would be better as snacks than candy; or that I could use as ride food. Those grab bags really are a bargain: I was able to fit 56 items (mostly small cereal bars) into a large bag.  After I got home I did the math, and determined that each item cost not quite nine cents. I was thrilled to find Progresso® Lentil Soup for 99¢ a can. That\’s a bargain, too. So is a 42 oz canister of Quaker Old Fashioned Rolled Oats® for $2.72. I still had plenty of oatmeal, but — same old song — \”just in case\”. Enough now about things that I do need. If I want to become a genuine, card-carrying tightwad I\’ll have to work harder to resist non-essentials. Olives, for one. I love garlic-stuffed green olives; and plain green olives; and ripe olives. Pimiento-stuffed olives are OK, too. Olives, however, aren\’t really a need. They\’re a want, which is something very different. The same goes for poppy-seed filling, which I occasionally find at the salvage store. It\’s good on bread, or as a substitute for jelly in a peanut-butter sandwich. Or just to eat by itself. But as a salvage-store purchase it\’s rather expensive. Not so tightwaddish, right?  

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